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  Copyright (c) 2005 Chainreactionworks.com

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</span></font><p align="center"><b><span style="font-size:10pt;"><font face="Arial">Data Feed Input/Output Introduction</font></span></b></p>
<p><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt;">
&nbsp;<b> 1. Introduction:</b> Data feed service is a collection of contributions to allow you to updated
your products and categories data remotely, and send that data to data listing
services. It uses a number of contributions that have been modified to work
better with small, medium, and large stores. </span></font></p>
<p><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt;">
&nbsp; <b>2. Goals:</b><br>The typical store owner never needs to edit a code or define file directly.The store
owner does not need a lot of support on how to use program.Combines the functions
of moving data in and out of store is in one area. Make it flexable enough for
small, medium and large store to use program effectivly. Move program files closer
to OSC/Cre Loaded standerds for look and feel, and codeing.<br><br>
&nbsp; <b>3. Parts of Data Feed Service:</b><br>
Easy Populate Advance enhanced by Tom O'Neill<br>
Easy Populate Basic enhanced by Tom O'Neill<br>
Google Base data feed : Calvin K<br>
&nbsp;Salemaker for Google Base feed: by Marcel van Lieshout<br>
&nbsp;Admin for Data Feed : Tom O'Neill<br><br>
&nbsp;&nbsp;a. Easy Populate: This is used to update product and category data, it allows
you to updated data remotely on your&nbsp;local computer and upload to the data
to your on line store.<br>
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;1. Easy Populate Advance<br>
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Easy Populate Advance
uses products_id instead of products_model to tie the rows in the Import/Export
file to your database. This is significate since you now can delete items, asigning
products to multiple categories, refine export files to select records you need
to edit/update There also has been asignificant speed and record handling capibilities
added to both Advance and Basic version. The numbers below are from recent test
done, previously Easy populate could only handle 300 to 400 records max.

<br>
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 2. Easy Populate Basic<br>
 Easy Populate basuc is for back ward compatiblity with  EP 2.XX version of Easy populate.
This is because EP used modle numbers to tie you file  back to the database. Where in the advance
version it used product_id.<br>

&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;3. Increase in speed and record handling<br></span></font>
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&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;  a. Using only stock products<br>
export EPB ~ 32 records 0.173231 seconds file size 26kb<br>
import EPB ~32 records 1.844497 seconds file size 26kb<br>
export EPA~ 32 records 0.790210 seconds file size 26kb<br>
import EPA~ 32 records 1.759426 seconds file size 26kb<br>
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;  b. Using 2033 products in a single file<br>
import EPA 89.927511 second &nbsp;or 1 minute 30 sec file size 2.800 KB<br>
import EPB 456.582260 second &nbsp;or 7 minutes and 36 sec file size 3,423 KB<br>
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;  c. Deleting products:2033 products added<br>
delete EPA 68.877599 seconds File size was 2,875 KB<br>
EPB cannot delete records.&nbsp;<br><br>
&nbsp;b. Data feed:<br>
&nbsp;&nbsp;Data feed takes the data with in your catalog and prepares it for submission to a feed &nbsp;service and send it to the feed
service either automaticly or manualy if you need on completion&nbsp;of building the feed.<br>&nbsp;<br>
&nbsp;c. For EP set up:<br><br>
&nbsp;&nbsp; The setup information for Easy Populate is stored in admin/epconfigure.php. This
configuration is for both Easy Populate Basic and Easy Populate Advance. <br><br>
&nbsp; d. For Data feeds setp up:<br>
Step 1 <br>
&nbsp;To set up this modules data feed service, Review the 7 steps to your first feed. It outlines
what steps you need to take to do a feed. It will take you through the configuration process to the uploading and checking of the feed.<br>
&nbsp;Step 2<br>The you will need to configure and run the data feeds this
is described in the running doc/configureandrun.txt document The file field_spec.txt
describes the limitation of what can be placed into each felid<br><br>
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 &nbsp;3. Error and staus messages</span></font></b><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt;">
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  All messages except the result of an import will appear near the top of the for, Blue background
  is for normal messages, red back ground for errors. <br>
  <img src="<?php echo DIR_WS_LANGUAGES . $language ;?>/help/ep/images/epb_export_mesg.png" border="0" >
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 </span></font><b><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt;">Import result</span></font></b><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt;">
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 The Import result will now appear below the admin screen<br>
  <img src="<?php echo DIR_WS_LANGUAGES . $language ;?>/help/ep/images/import_results.gif" border="0" >
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 </span></font><b><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt;">Help while using the admin screens</span></font></b><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt;">
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 You will notice a <img src="images/icon_info.gif" border="0" > through out the admin screens This
 is individual help for each setting or imput you could use. It will display a popup window with
 help.<br>
  <img src="<?php echo DIR_WS_LANGUAGES . $language ;?>/help/ep/images/item_help.gif" border="0" >
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 <td><br><br><b> 5. Features added and changes to basic programs.</b><br> &nbsp;&nbsp;<br>&nbsp;Easy
populate 2.75 Advance to 3.01:<br>
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;1. Removed the Google Base feed from this
contribution. The Google Base function is now &nbsp;handled by seperate code files.<br>
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;2. Moved EP from catalog side box to Data Input/Output System side box.<br>
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;3. Moved function file to admin/includes/function directory to follow OSC standerds.<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;4.
Moved most simple function to function file, export now has all functions removed
. There is now only one function left in the EPA import file. <br>
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;5. Redid admin screens so it was more like the rest of the OSC admin. .<br>
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;6. Inserted tep form function rather then html form function. <br>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;7. Added
popup help for informtion on how to use EPA.<br>
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;8. Easy Populate Basic is for backward compatibility with older versions of EP<br>
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;EP advance will import all EPA files of previous version of EPA. <br>
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;9. Export screen and Import screen seperated into two seperate files<br>
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;10. Side box changed, so that sub titles are offset.<br>
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;11. Added date time to split so each group of splits will be unique and old splits will &nbsp;not be
lost or over written. &nbsp;&nbsp;example EPA_Split1_2005Sep09-1010.txt.<br>
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;12. Program message, error, and output were place in one of three variable so they
could be outputed&nbsp;with in the html output section of the files.<br> <br>Easy
Populate Basic 2.75 Basic to 3.01:</span></font>
<p><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt;">
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;1. Easy Populate Basic is for backward compatibility with older versions of EP<br>
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;2. Added date time to split so each group of splits will be unique and old splits will&nbsp;not be
lost or over written. &nbsp;&nbsp;example EPA_Split1_2005Sep09-1010.txt.<br>
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;3. Program message, error, and output were place in one of three variable so they
could be outputed&nbsp;with in the html output section of the files.<br>
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;4. Removed the Google Base feed from this contribution. The Google Base function is now &nbsp;handled by seperate code files.<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;5.
Moved EP from catalog side box to Data export/import side box.<br>
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;6. Moved function file to admin/includes/function directory to follow OSC standerds.<br>
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;7. Moved most simple function to function file, export now has all functions removed .. <br>
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;8. Redid admin screens so it was more like the rest of the catalog. and EPA<br>
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;9. Inserted tep form function rather then html form function (Inprogress)<br>
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;10. Added popup help for informtion on how to use EPB.<br><br>&nbsp;Items
fixed or enhanced from Ep 2.74 to 2.75 Advance:<br>
&nbsp;1. To add products the product id should be set to 0, there can be many 0's for product ID's.<br>
&nbsp;2. You no longer need to change the manufacturers table to change a manufacturers_id
first&nbsp;manf id to 1 or 0<br>
&nbsp;3. No longer adds a empty product, caused by not treating the last line as not product.<br>
&nbsp;4. Added EP Basic, It cannot install any EP Advanced files since they start with EPA a error<br>
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;message
will be displayed. It can install any file that strts wil EPB or older EP files<br>
&nbsp;5. EP Advanced set up so it can only read files that start with EPA , prevents
reading older files.<br>
&nbsp;6. Delete has been added back into EP for products
only. &nbsp;This is implemented via a new column call v_action. You must type
the word &quot;delete&quot; in this column to delete a product.<br>
&nbsp;7. EP basic was not showing on some site this was to an error in the install of
the&nbsp;admin_files a new set of admin_files was added to the install.<br>
&nbsp;8. You can add your own product ID, If your product ID's are based on a system
other than&nbsp;numbers generated by the shopping cart and autoincremented by
one. You still cannot&nbsp;&nbsp;use alpha character in product ID. This allows
for compatibility with some external inventory management systems.<br>&nbsp;
9. moved configuration of EP to a seperate file called epconfigure.php <br><br>
&nbsp;Data Feed:<br>
&nbsp;1. Added language files<br>
&nbsp;2. Multiple configurations for multiple feed services now available through admin screen<br>
&nbsp;3. Configuration configured in admin rather then edit a file.<br>
&nbsp;4. Feed submission now A multiple step process.<br>
&nbsp;5. Switched to tep functions for data base queries.<br>
&nbsp;6. Split file generation and FTP code into two separate files.<br>
&nbsp;7. Combined Google Base, Yahoo and Bizrite into one package (Not all installed and adapted yet)<br>
&nbsp;8. added fields for advance feed to products database<br>
&nbsp;9. added separate sql file for additional info for Google Base feed<br>
&nbsp;10. Builds Category strings before building feed file.<br>
&nbsp;11. Help popups added to admin screens.<br>
&nbsp;12. Added salemaker contribution pricing to price sent to price in feed.<br>
&nbsp;13. Uses tax zone from store. <br>
&nbsp;14. Add the fields Google Base_type, upc, isbn, manufacturer_product_id to products table and
products edit screen.<br>&nbsp;
15. add Google Base specific fields for books, music, video to a seperate table.<br>&nbsp;
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